Finally solved my starter bolt woes...

[CDN-CUCV]

Well after numerous broken bolts I finally realized what was the problem and now my truck runs like new. At first, I had no torque strap on the front of the starter connecting to the block so I modified a 12v. 6.2l one and installed it. Everything was fine...for a while. Then I broke another bolt. I had checked the condition of the ring gear before, but never thought it to be that much of a contributing factor but sure enough, there were some bad patches of teeth that the bendix gear had been skipping on and causing enough stress to snap the bolts.

Well, I bought a new flexplate w/ ring gear and installed it. Starter was still in good shape, surprisingly little wear on the bendix gear and now the motor purrs like never before. Nice and balanced now and shouldn't break anymore bolts!

I thought I'd pass this on to anyone of you who has had starter bolt problems. Check the condition of your flexplate and ringgear, could save you the grief I had

 

[CUCVHMMWV]

Yeah, the previous owner of my CUCV didn't put that torque strap on the starter and it stripped that ring gear to Hell. Luckily, the flywheel is pretty cheap to replace... how hard was it to install? Got any tips on that?

 

[n1vbn]

Congrats on replacing the flywheel.....Now 6.2's will break starter bolts even when the torque strap is properly in place. The way to prevent broken bolts? Go to your local Chevy Dealer and order 6 bolts "ONLY USE FACTORY BOLTS" or so and once a year crawl under the truck (if you don't have access to a lift) and replace them "ONE AT A TIME" IE: REMOVE ONE BOLT AND REPLACE WITH A NEW ONE.......AFTER IT IS TIGHT REPLACE THE OTHER ONE THE SAME WAY......It is a heeluva lot easier to replace em this way than wait for em to break.......two bolts cost around $10.00 cheap insurance....oh yeah cut up the old bolts so you don't reuse em...they have been stretched and are no longer any good for reuse.



James Shanks
n1vbn@yahoo.com
1985 M-1009

 

[CDN-CUCV]

Congrats on replacing the flywheel.....Now 6.2's will break starter bolts even when the torque strap is properly in place. The way to prevent broken bolts? Go to your local Chevy Dealer and order 6 bolts "ONLY USE FACTORY BOLTS" or so and once a year crawl under the truck (if you don't have access to a lift) and replace them "ONE AT A TIME" IE: REMOVE ONE BOLT AND REPLACE WITH A NEW ONE.......AFTER IT IS TIGHT REPLACE THE OTHER ONE THE SAME WAY......It is a heeluva lot easier to replace em this way than wait for em to break.......two bolts cost around $10.00 cheap insurance....oh yeah cut up the old bolts so you don't reuse em...they have been stretched and are no longer any good for reuse.



James Shanks
n1vbn@yahoo.com
1985 M-1009

I'll do that. I was carrying extra bolts but only for replacements for when one broke. I did use original GM bolts from the dealer, the ones with the gold cadmium plating, but never considered nor heard of changing them regularly, makes perfect sense.

Thanks for the post